It's Really The End...

Dear Readers,

I guess I knew this was coming even before it was assigned but leaving this blog is a little hard yet also pretty easy. This blog has become a habit of mine and I doubt I will ever forget this big assignment to create a blog and write in it almost every week, it was definitely a very memorable English project.

Though this assignment was long and sometimes time consuming it was worth while because as I was reading through old posts I discovered that the more we wrote and the more practice that I had writing the better I have become. I have especially advanced my skills in the vocabulary that I use. For instance in more recent posts I have heightened the diction and usage of adjectives so that they aren't necessarily over whelming but don't go unnoticed. A few traits that I have had through out my writing for this blog are confidence and positivity. When I say confidence I mean that I am not ever afraid to either ask questions, or share my real opinion about the subject. With some of the books like TKAM or GE I was nowhere close to ashamed admitting that at the books where hard to start or that I wasn't really connected to the story, and in my opinion that is a good writing trait as well as a personality trait. When I say I had positivity in my writing I mean that even if a book isn'y appealing in one way I will find another literary element that I like a lot and really accentuate in the rest of my writing.

From having to write about a lot of the main projects on the units that we have done over the year I have learned a lot about myself and my own writing capacity and how by just working hard will pay off. You know what they say "practice makes perfect" and maybe you can't be a completely perfect writer but you can certainly grow into a very good writer by just experimenting with different things to write about like what we have been doing on this blog all year. We have written about countless different things from books that we have read to assignments on the books that we had to read. We have also had to write about the different units we were entering like poetry and comparing pieces of literature to our own lives as best we could. These blog prompts this year required lots of thought and patience and in the long run I didn't slack off on the blogs the way that some other people did.

This year in blog format has been wonderful and to sum it all up I like a quote from Saint Augustine, he said, "Patience is a the companion of wisdom" and while writing this blog I was testing my own patience and my blogs turned out quite well as a result. Like I have said before I will miss this blog.

Love, Forever and Always,
Amaya
 

Representation In Photography

Dear readers,

This picture may be a little weird but  think that it represents Pip very well in the first two stages of this book. In this picture it looks like someone is trapped beneath leaves and that can symbolize the way that Pip is trapped in his small little village and trapped in his low class of being a blacksmith. All Pip wants is a way out of his small measly life. and he does that by working for Miss Havisham. And that brings me to the second significant part of this photograph. The hand that is sticking out and trying to grasp onto anything it can reach symbolizes Pip's chance to escape his poor life in forges and go to bigger and better things. For example his chance to go to London and him receiving his great expectations. But also since the rest of the body is still encased in leaves it could represent the guilt that ties Pip to Joe and Biddy, and that he feels this guilt for leaving them. All in all  think that this photograph represents Pip's life through out the first two sections of this book very well. with the taste of freedom that that hand is getting but also the suppressed body that is Pip's old life.

Love, Amaya

My Favorite Project, It Could Be Hard To Pick

Dear Readers,

After thinking about all the projects that we have done this year and which ones I am most proud of and which were the best I would have to say that I am most impressed with the journal assignment for Great Expectations because I got full points on it but I also put a lot of time and effort into making that journal into the best that it could be. If the assignment that I am talking about is a little hazy in your memory I will give you a brief description. In the six weeks that we read GE each week we had to produce a description of a new character from that weeks reading, a new character development, and a comparison or contrast in the reading. For the explanation, significance, and description we had to write a paragraph. Each week I always had the journal in on time with great detail and quality in the the work.

I am really proud of my self because it could be a tedious process sometimes but I powered through with high quality and lots of thought. Since I knew that this journal would be important I really wanted to be able to put out the best work that I could so I prioritized it over other assignments so that it would be fresh and well written while I was wide awake. Even though GE was not my favorite book this really is  the assignment that I am most proud of.

Love, Amaya

That Happy Warm Feeling With Poetry

Dear Readers,

I personally am no that biggest fan of poetry but my best experience with the art form was this year while doing poetry out loud. I got to do poetry out loud for two classes this year, English and Drama. For my Drama class I memorized the poem Echo by Daryl Hine. For English I picked the poem Full Moon by Elinor Wylie. These poems both moved me beyond words and it was a great experience to memorize them.

The memorization process was hard but it really helped me understand what the poet was trying to say and the emotions that they were conveying. Both of my poems were depressing but spoke to me and grabbed my attention. These poets were very deep with there emotions and I believe that these poems would have spoken to anyone, not just me.

Hine and Wylie were great poets who knew how to write poetry and write it well. The fact that these poets were so great made the whole experience of Poetry Out Loud way better, and really made the recitation really worth it. Also being able to make visual aids and analysing poems was a big help with being able to memorize. All in all this experience with poetry was great and I would love to do it again someday.

Even though I liked Poetry Out Loud I am not so keen on poetry in general, because I am not the best at writing poems. I am quite bad at rhyming as well so I have pretty much just givin up on writing poetry and poetry itself.

Love, Amaya

What's The Big Problem?

Dear Readers,

We are almost done with Romeo & Juliet and are getting ready to write an essay, and according to the prompt we must choose a specific conflict so I will be going over how Juliet is having personal problems because she is is betraying her family by loving Romeo, the son of her families ancient enemy. You can tell that this conflict is present when she is having trouble deciding weather of not to feel sad that her dear cousin Tybalt has been killed or that her newly betrothed husband is now in exile. This can either be interpreted as a 'person vs. self' conflict or a 'moral conflict'. This conflict is important because it is the deciding point for Juliet to be all in for either Romeo or her family. This conflict represents the theme of love.

People are always fighting with themselves and having difficulty following their own morals when they have and offer that is almost to good to pass up or when something is pushed onto them. Many kids have moral troubles when they are offered drugs or alcohol. Kids may have promised themselves or their parents that they will never do drugs and not drink until they are of age, but it can be very hard to keep to those promises when all of your friends are doing these illegal things. Teens experience conflicts with them selves all the time and have trouble choosing what they will end up doing.

Love, Amaya

Where Is Romeo & Juliet? Oh, Now I Remember, Its Everywhere!

Dear Readers,

In my humble opinion Shrek the movie is very much like Romeo & Juliet. It includes R&J's timeless story of a forbidden love and an unexpected match. There are also some character matches such as Donkey and Benvolio. They both are the best friend that tries to take control and wants their friend to be happy, even if their friend is hesitant at first.  If you have never seen Shrek i will give you a quick synopsis. A scary ogre agrees to save a beautiful princess from a tower. He finds out that she turns into an ogre every night. and they eventually fall in love. But they are not supposed to be married because she is, well, a human and he an ogre. There is also another man that wants her hand in marriage. Just like Paris wants to marry Juliet. But in the end Shrek and his love get married. A happier ending then that of R&J.

Love, Amaya

Who, What, Where, When? Am I Really Getting This Book?

Dear Readers,

As I have started to read Romeo and Juliet I have realized my connection to both Benvolio and Romeo, well frankly more of the relationship that they have and what they do for each other. I personally have been on both ends of their friendship, the sad one, and the one to cheer the friend up. Sure I have been sad about many things, friends, crushes, family, school, life, but I have always had a friend like Benvolio to pull me up and get my mind off of things. Be it going out for a party or staying in and watching a movie, I have always had a good friend to be the Benvolio to my Romeo. I have also had to play the opposite role of Benvolio for a friend and I try to be that character as much as possible because a good friend is always there to help you up when you're down. I also think it's a really important quality in a friend to know exactly what to do in a situation like that.

As for the reading of the book, It has been good. It has become easier and easier to read the more I read. But the reading in class is very beneficial to my understanding of the book because I can only catching so much from my own reading. With the added ideas from group members, and classmates  it is very helpful for me and my knowledge of the shakespearian language. Using the opposite pages in the book is also very handy tool for a quick understanding of a few things that are confusing in the book. With the reading in class and the special Folger edition book I at least have a chance of knowing what is happening in the book.

Love, Amaya